Combating child labour helps secure higher pay

(May 2010)

Story published in Union View n°18, also available at http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/VS_migrant_EN-2.pdf

In India and Nepal, several unions have seen a spectacular increase in membership levels following the creation of schools for children working in brick kilns. They have managed to negotiate better wages as a result.

In India, brick making is one of the hardest sectors to unionise. Their owners are usually powerful figures at local level; they have political connections, allowing themselves to disregard the laws and exploit the workers. Applying the usual unionisation techniques is often futile, if not a danger to the workers. Organisations affiliated to BWI (1) have tried a new way of approaching this milieu, through the fight against child labour. "Our members start by visiting the brick kilns on the pretext of buying bricks. They get to know the workers little by little and then meet them in public places such as the markets. They propose projects for their children, rather than talking about trade unions straight away: in some places, our organisations have a bad reputation as many workers have been exploited in the past by trade union leaders who were, first and foremost, politicians," explains J. L. Srivastava, coordinator of the BWI project against child labour in India.

Given the lack of quality schools in the rural regions where the brick kilns are located, BWI offered to set up schools for the workers' children. The two first schools were opened in 1995, with the support of ILO-IPEC (2), in the states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. After the first encouraging results, four Indian BWI affiliates received funding from several foreign unions (in the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Australia and Canada) to multiply these projects. They are now running 19 schools in four Indian states. "BWI's aim is not to take over from the public authorities in the running of schools," underlines Rajeev Sharma, the BWI coordinator for South Asia. "Once our schools are fully developed and we are sure that the government can take responsibility for them and provide the same quality of education, we hand their management over to it, whilst continuing to check that they are being run properly." Around ten schools have been transferred to the government in this way.

Trade union activists go from worker to worker to try to convince them to send their children to school. Shobat Masik, a trade unionist employed by the BMS construction union (3) explains: "The children are not employed by the brick kiln owners, but start helping their parents as of age four or five, preparing the soil, turning over the bricks when they are cooked, piling them up, ... The workers are paid according to the number of bricks they produce. When I tell them about the adverse effects of child labour, they respond that their earnings will fall if their children go to school, and that they cannot afford to pay for several children to go to school. We have to talk to them at length to motivate them; we have to explain that by not letting their children go to school, the problems of poverty are passed on from one generation to the next. Many of the parents are not educated themselves. A great deal of patience is required to convince them that education is a good long-term family investment."

                            Tens of thousands of new members

"Creating schools is a way of improving the image workers, employers and the authorities have of trade unions, which then helps us to develop other activities. They are an excellent entry point into these communities. We can then provide the workers with other services, such as helping them to obtain the social assistance they are entitled to." These projects have helped trade unions to raise their membership levels. "We have recruited 30,000 new members since the launch of the project to combat child labour in 1995," says Kulwant Singh Bawa, general secretary of the BMS, a building workers' union active in the state of Punjab. "We now have 40,000 dues-paying members and 40,000 non-paying members. The same enthusiasm can be found in Uttar Pradesh, where the UPGMS (4) has gone from having just 50 members in 1995 to over 48,000 today.

The revenue lost by taking a child out of work is compensated for by the wage rises secured by these unions, which have stronger bargaining power thanks to the increase in membership. "In Punjab, BMS has managed to take the rate of pay from 160 to 286 rupees (3.50 to 6.40 dollars) over the last ten years," underlines J. L. Srivastava. A large pay increase has also been secured in Uttar Pradesh. Tula Ram Sharma, president of the UPGMS: "Thanks to negotiations with the Brick Kiln Employers' Association, we have managed to raise pay, taking it from 70 rupees for 1,000 bricks in 1995 to 150 rupees today." The members of trade unions affiliated to BWI also help the women workers to form self-help groups through which they can secure microcredits, set up small income generating activities, etc.

                                    Projects extended to Nepal

The success of the child labour projects in India motivated BWI to extend them to Nepal, where its two affiliates CUPPEC (5) and CAWUN (6) are now running three schools. CAWUN has set up a primary school in one of the 14 brick kilns of Sudal, not far from the city of Bhaktapur, with the support of the Finish trade union solidarity centre SASK. "We had 1,900 members in the Bhaktapur district when we opened the school in January 2008. It has helped us recruit between 200 and 400 new members per month," explains Rajendra Kumar Baniya, general secretary of CAWUN. "Around half of the workers in Sudal's brick kilns are migrants from other areas of Nepal. Their children can follow the classes at our school and then take their exams in the schools in their home towns. As a result, 85% of the migrant pupils passed their exams last year."

Like in India, the trade unionists have to speak to the parents several times to convince them how important schooling is. In some instances, it is the workers who are already sending their children to school that manage to convince the others. The gradual unionisation of Sudal's workers has contributed to the negotiation of better wages, which compensate for the revenue lost when a child stops working. "When I work with my wife, I manage to produce 1,000 bricks during an 11 hour day, but if I am helped by one of my daughters, aged nine, we can make 150 more," says Minbahadur Thapa, a worker in Sudal. "Last year, the union managed to take wages from 270 to 410 Nepalese rupees (3.70 to 5.70 dollars) for 1,000 bricks. This increase in my family income finally convinced me to let my daughter attend the classes at the CAWUN school."

                                                                                            Samuel Grumiau

(1) Building and Wood Workers' International

(2) International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour

(3) Bhatha Mazdoor Sabha, affiliated to Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS)

(4) Uttar Pradesh Gramin Mazdoor Sangthan, affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).

(5) Central Union of Painters, Plumbers, Electro and Construction Workers, affiliated to the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT).

(6) Construction & Allied Workers' Union of Nepal, affiliated to the Nepal Trade Union Congress - Independent (NTUC-I).

Quote:

"If the BMS had not convinced me how important schooling is, I would have continued to make my 12-year-old daughter work. My wife, my older children and myself work more and more so that she can go to school. We get up at three in the morning and are at the brick kiln from four in the morning till nine at night, six days a week. It's nerve-racking, because of we don't reach the quota of 1,000 bricks we don't get the minimum wage."

Dilbagh Singh, aged 43, from the Mittal brick kiln in the village of Bhullar, Punjab.

Quote:

"Whilst child labour is the result, in part, of poverty, it also perpetuates it, as it weakens the adults' collective bargaining power.

Rajeev Sharma, BWI coordinator in South Asia.